WILPF United States Section
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WILPF is exceptional among non-governmental organizations for the number and variety of opportunities it makes available for its members to involve themselves in its leadership at the national and international levels. That’s because our members are our organization, and our organization’s effectiveness depends—in every way—on the quality of our members.
Woman Power at the 2010 U.S. Social Forum
On day four of the USSF, a few of us from WILPF joined hundreds in celebrating the 95th birthday of Grace Lee Boggs. Grace is a philosopher, a feminist and a community organizer who has lived and worked in Detroit with her (now deceased) husband Jimmy Boggs, since 1953. (Grace is the same age as WILPF, and we wanted to give her a bouquet and claim her as a sister, which we did after the ceremony). It was through hearing the loving accolades and songs and poems that Grace has inspired that helped me understand the powerful culture of resistance and creativity that she has helped create within the shell of abandoned capitalism in Detroit. I would guess that the Social Forum might not have taken place in Detroit were it not for the long-term organizing and community building spearheaded by the Boggs.
Seated in a wheelchair in a large room at the Cobo Center, she traced her life, from the first birthday that she remembered, to today. One could tell that her studies of Hegel, her translations of Karl Marx, and her work in the 40’s and 50’s with the Caribbean writer CLR James were vivid experiences that continue to guide her thoughts and actions today.
Celebrate Jane Addams Birthday - Support Women Peacemakers!
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Celebrate Jane Addams Birthday - Support Women Peacemakers!
This fall marks the 150th anniversary of Jane Addams' birth and the 10th anniversary of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325. To mark this historic occasion, WILPF is launching a special project designed to bolster women's active engagement in conflict resolution and prevention. The new Advancing Women as Peacemakers (AWP) Project will educate citizens on the history of women as peacemakers, stressing the interconnectedness of gender equality and peace, and the unique roles women can and have played in peace negotiations. This fall, AWP will sponsor a national speaking tour and workshops featuring women peacemakers from conflict areas around the world. WILPF branches and other groups are encouraged to join this initiative and host a workshop. For more information, please contact Tanya Burovtseva, AWP Project Coordinator, at (617) 266-0999 or email: tburovtseva@wilpf.org.
WILPF is Going to the U.S. Social Forum – Are You?
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| USSF people representing at the May Day Immigration Reform Rally and March in Chicago. Another World is Possible// Otro Mundo es Posible ussf2010.org www.chicagoradicalendar.org/ |
The U.S. Social Forum is part of the vital World Social Forum movement started in Brazil 10 years ago. The Social Forum helps regular citizens explore ways to end wars, promote human rights, economic justice and environmental action. About 50 WILPFers participated actively in the first U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta in 2007. They joined over 17,000 women and men of many races and backgrounds working for peace and justice. WILPFers made important connections, contributed much, and learned even more.
Join us this year, when WILPF will be sponsoring several key workshops (and supporting many others). You can also choose from over 1,000 other workshops, participate in plenary sessions, the People’s Assemblies, cultural and artistic events, and a march of thousands through central Detroit. Members can also help with WILPF tabling or participate in (and help organize) WILPF workshops.
In, addition we are cooperating with workshops supported or organized by many of our WILPF issue committees, including the Cuba and Bolivarian Alliance, Save the Water, and the Middle East committee. We are also collaborating on workshops sponsored by our peace and justice allies.
Register now, online – it’s easy! Pay by credit card or check as instructed. To register as a WILPF member, write our complete name in the box provided: Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom U.S. Section. If you need help or are registering under another organization contact WILPF member Terry Futvoye-Micus, our Detroit WILPFer and registrar, at terfutmic@aol.com.
Stay with WILPF members in shared hotel rooms at $22 to $36 a night.
WILPF Protests Testing of Nuclear Warhead Delivery Systems
Join Us on June 5 – International Nuclear Weapons Abolition Day
WILPF is proud to partner with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) to protest ICBM missile test launches and call for a real commitment to nuclear abolition through a Nuclear Weapons Convention.
Despite President Obama’s promises in Prague to pursue a nuclear weapons free future, the U.S. military is still testing and upgrading Minuteman III ICBMs designed to carry thermonuclear warheads.
Two ICBM test launches (with dummy warheads) are scheduled for June 2010 from Vandenberg Air Force base / Space Command near Lompoc, California to the Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands. The exact date of the launch tests are not known, and June 5 provides a great opportunity to expose them; most of the world is unaware that these tests are still being carried out routinely.
US WILPF Letter to US Senate Urging Immediate Ratification of CEDAW
Click here to view and download a pdf version of this letter.
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), U.S. Section, calls upon the U.S. Senate to immediately ratify the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
This year marks the 31st anniversary of the CEDAW Convention, the historic international bill of rights for women’s human rights. As an international non-governmental organization with UN consultative status, WILPF was a vital part of the decades-long process culminating in the adoption of the CEDAW Convention. In 1974, WILPF formally instructed its sections in various countries to engage their governments in the crafting of an international human rights convention which would “bring together the various aspects of women’s rights to form international law,” because we understood that “only through the intensive participation of women can best possible development in each country . . . and world peace [be] achieved.”
The CEDAW Convention was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 18, 1979 and signed, on behalf of the United States, by President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Yet, thirty-one years later, this powerful treaty has yet to be ratified by the U.S. Senate. The US is the only country to sign but not ratify the Convention.
Exit Afghanistan? You Make the Call
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Women voting in Afghanistan |
The evidence that the war in Afghanistan is a catastrophe just keeps piling up. Despite General McChrystal’s efforts to reduce civilian deaths, we just learned that so far this year the number of civilians killed by NATO has more than doubled.
This includes a botched raid where special operations forces killed five innocent civilians – including two pregnant women – and then tried to cover it up. Just last week, troops fired into a bus full of civilians, killing as many as five people and causing a firestorm of protest. The Associated Press (4/12/10) has reported that: “With troop levels rising amid heightened violence, at least 2,412 Afghan civilians were killed in fighting last year, an increase of 14 percent from 2008, according to the United Nations … NATO earlier this month confirmed that international troops were responsible for the deaths of five people, including three women, killed Feb. 12 in Gardez, south of Kabul. An Afghan government report on the incident claims U.S. special forces had mistaken their targets and later sought to cover up the killings by digging bullets out of bodies, according to investigators who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.”
Earlier this month, the WikiLeaks website released a harrowing video from 2007 of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter opening fire on a group of civilian men in Bagdad, two of whom were journalists working for Reuters.
The Bolivian Example: How WILPF Can Work for Water and a Clean Earth
By Nancy Price and Theta Pavis
The First People’s World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth recently took place in Bolivia. Yet this historic conference was also a reminder that the work for a healthy planet, and clean drinking water for everyone, is far from over.
During the gathering in Bolivia, activists also held a water conference, Feria Internacional del Aqua, which featured an outdoor fair where villagers showcased the work of local water councils. The fair included food, information about water-related organizations and a number of workshops.
Five Days That Will Shake the World: WILPF Joins U.S. Social Forum
This June, WILPF members will join thousands of activists to make the slogan “Another World is Possible” come to life. The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom is on the official program and our members Edith Bell and Odile Hugonot Haber are also involved in additional workshops.
This gigantic, grassroots forum will address the key issues WILPFers work on, so it is a good place to make connections, spread WILPF’s name, and have an impact. Members can register at the official U.S. Social Forum website or if you want to use WILPF’s official registration password, contact carol.disarm(at)gmail.com.
There is a space on the registration form to indicate your organizational affiliation; write in WILPF and it will help us coordinate getting together in Detroit.
Rivers of Regeneration
The WILPF project Women and Water Rights took months of planning, but the ripple effects will be felt for years to come. Check out the fantastic media coverage they’ve received.
This week the project continues to build momentum, with a “World Water Day Film Screening.” What’s next? None other than Vandana Shiva will make a major presentation on the closing day of the exhibition. If you couldn’t see the exhibit and catch the programming, don’t worry. You can listen to a Podcast about their work on the KFAI website – just look for the clip on International Women’s Day with host Dixie Treichel on the radio show Fresh Fruit. The exhibit will also be going on tour. Check their website for more details.
WILPF Supports Walk for Nuclear Disarmament and Abolition
By Ellen Thomas, Co-Chair WILPF DISARM Commitee
International peace activists – from New Jersey to Japan – will leave Washington on April 8 to walk through Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Princeton and points in between, before arriving in New York on April 30. There we will join thousands of international supporters (and three other peace walks converging from different directions) at an international disarmament conference on April 30 and May 1. We’ll follow it up with a mass demonstration and march through Times Square on May 2.
“For the first time since the 1980s, we have aggressive leadership toward nuclear abolition. We will carry that energy and hope from the U.S. capital to the United Nations in New York, hoping the world will recognize that a majority of Americans--like the vast majority of world citizens--want nuclear weapons gone,” says WILPF member and walk co-coordinator, Jay Marx.
After the NPT events in New York, WILPF branches will have an opportunity to sponsor events and home stays, as the campaign heads north into New England.
Originating from a 1993 voter initiative in Washington, D.C., the “Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act” (HR-1653 in 2009-2010) has been introduced into the U.S. Congress nine times so far, but remains stuck in committee. Its aim is to convert money fueling the war machine into funds that provide for human needs. We want to see solar panels and windmills, not missiles and bomb-dropping drones.
You Get What You Pay For 2010
WILPF members attending the 54th meetings of the Commission on the Status of Women push to reallocate government dollars from military expenditures to basic human needs. A pamphlet produced as the result of our strategizing at the International Board meeting about how to unify WILPF's talking points is available: Click here to view or download the pamphlet as a pdf file.
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